Giancarlo Stanton, 25, Sets Marlins All-Time Home Run Record

Giancarlo Stanton set the Miami Marlins all-time home run record last night. He’s 25.

How young is Miami’s home run leader?

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The Berlin Wall fell and Milli Vanilli rose to the top of the singles and albums charts the month of his birth. Beloit College’s mindset list advises that people Stanton’s age never heard Howard Cosell call a game, never rode in a new Datsun, and never watched Pete Rose participate in a Major League Baseball game. Ricky Nelson, Bette Davis, Richard Burton, Lucille Ball, and Orson Welles have always been dead and Ronald Reagan has never been president during Stanton’s life.

The gee-whiz moment came off of New York Mets starter Dillon Gee in the first inning of Thursday’s Marlins loss. “I was stupid,” Gee told the press. “I just made a dumb pitch.” Sending the ball over Citi Field’s fence sent Stanton past Dan Uggala (not exactly Hank Aaron) on the Marlins list.

A 25-year-old setting the Marlins mark speaks to the franchise’s youth. The team played its first game a few months after Stanton’s third birthday. Only the Tampa Bay Rays list a record with fewer home runs. But it also highlights what an absolute power-hitting phenom the Marlins first basemen has been in his six seasons in the bigs. Playing in the post-PED era, Stanton averages more than thirty home runs a season. He wields a sweet swing and the tork that comes from his length generates enormous power.

To put the Marlins new mark in perspective, the Twins and Tigers home run records still stand after 41 years, the Dodger mark turns 52 this season, and the Red Sox milestone remains after more than 54 years. The Yankees all-time home run leader died 47 years before the birth of the Marlins all-time home run leader.

At 25, Babe Ruth had belted a mere 103 home runs to Stanton’s 155 and counting. But Stanton has a long way to go before he catches Ruth–or Aaron or Bonds for that matter. As the ball racing toward Stanton’s face last September rudely informed, it can all end in an instant. Just ask Tony Conigliaro. He hit 170 home runs before his 26th birthday. He hit six of them after it.

The Miami Marlins bet $325 million on nothing of the sort sidelining their stud slugger–at least for the next thirteen years. At that point, provided that Stanton continues at this clip, he should be passing Mike Schmidt on the MLB home run list.